MUMBAI: Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairman C B Bhave on Friday inaugurated a mutual fund platform on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) named as ‘BSE Star MF’ where the investors can trade in over 103 schemes of over 20 mutual fund housed. BSE’s mutual fund platform comes less than a week after the National Stock Exchange (NSE) launched its own mutual funds transaction platform.
Speaking on the occasion, Madhu Kannan, MD & CEO of BSE, said that since mutual funds have become an essential vehicle for investors to canalize their savings, BSE Star MF will offer a low cost inclusive network to all funds and intermediaries in the mutual fund industry to reach the investors. “Given the breadth of our nationwide network, we are positive that investors will find value in this platform,” he said.
According to Kannan, BSE’s mutual fund trading platform will have a widespread access through its vast reach spreading over 400 cities and spanning over 40,000 terminals in India. The exchange mechanism would also extend the present convenience to secondary market investors to mutual fund investors, which will be available through the electronic platform.
BSE will utilize the infrastructure of Indian Clearing Corporation Limited, for clearing and settlement of the transactions through BSE Star MF and both CDSL and NSDL have agreed to work as the depositories for the new venture.
Out of the present 37 mutual fund houses operating in the country, about 20 of them have agreed to join the BSE Star MF platform which includes Reliance Mutual Fund, Tata, Birla Sun Life, Fidelity, SBI, HDFC, ICICI Prudential, UTI, DBS Cholamandalam, DSP Blackrock, JM Financial, Kotak MF, Edelweiss, Axis, Mirae, Taurus, Deutsche, J P Morgan and Motilal Oswal.